Florence is a city full of a thousand surprises. You can find everything in Florence. Just look for it, keep your eyes wide open, and your mind alert. For example, did you know that there are ghosts wandering around?
Yes, yes, real ghosts.
They don’t show themselves, but if we’re clever and attentive, we might be able to find them or at least follow the traces they left.
So, one of them is in Piazza SS. Annunziata, near the Hospital where children were given shelter when families couldn’t or didn’t want to raise them. How sad… yes, but it was very common in ancient times for a family not to be able to keep a child, maybe because they were too poor to raise them.
Then, after putting a little medal or another small object on them, through which they might recognize and welcome them back into the family after years, they wrapped the child in a blanket, went to Piazza SS. Annunziata where there was a small window with bars, and there they placed the baby on a pile, a kind of column with a small cradle at the top.
The children left in the care of the nurses at the Hospital of the Innocents, as it was called, were so many, so many that at some point, they had to tighten the bars to prevent families from leaving at least the older children.
If you look up, even today, in the square, on the Loggia of the Hospital, you can still see some children who were guests of the hospital, wrapped in swaddling clothes, boys and girls.
But let’s get back to our ghost.
The window of one of the palaces in the square is always open. It is said that a lady, who died many many years ago, is still waiting for her son, returning from the war: she gets very angry if someone dares to close that window. If it closes, everything happens in the palace, great confusion, and a lot of noise.
There’s another one in Via de’Cerretani, near the station. If you’ve already been to Florence, who knows how many times you’ve passed under it without noticing. It’s a woman named Berta, and she checks everyone who passes by.
Then there’s the one from Ginevra degli Amieri, who is still there between Via del Campanile, Via della Morta, once, and Via delle Oche.
Not to mention the monsters!!!!
In Piazza della Signoria, there are several: Medusa, who turns anyone who looks at her into stone. Be careful! The centaur, who fights furiously with Hercules. And then giants, warriors, heroes, fantastic creatures, and more and more!
And the animals? There are so many! Lions, turtles, and horses, but if we look closely, we might find others even more peculiar!
I await you to discover all the secrets of Florence!
